Entering the Rest of our Risen Lord
Hebrews 2 v10 – 5 v11
Halifax: 21 April 2019, 10:30 am

Introduction
As most of you know, in this church we do not follow the church calendar with all of the different holy days.
- Our Lord warns us about following the traditions of man.
- But I do often preach on the birth of Christ as Christmas and the resurrection of Christ at Easter since this is on peoples’ minds… and they are excellent things.
This year I was thinking of going on with my regular sermon series in Mark, but as my family has been reading through Hebrews in our evening worship,
- I was super encouraged by what it said about our risen Lord Jesus and about the rest we have in Him and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity!
- So I am breaking from Mark to preach about the rest that our Lord Jesus has already entered and into which have entered by faith and into which we will enter at the last day when we are resurrected.

I. At the heart of this passage (Heb 3-4) is an earnest appeal to enter God’s rest.
- See, for example, Hebrews 4 v11.
A. But first, notice that the rest is referred to repeatedly as God’s rest.
1. In 3 v11, God is speaking, and He speaks of it as my rest. (see also 3 v18, 4 v1, 3, 4-5).
2. In every case, rest refers to work that God has finished—a job completed.
- God is said to rest from three different works.
a. Rest from the work of creation (4 v4).
b. Rest from the work of redemption of His people out of Egypt and into Canaan. (3 v16-19).
- The Sabbath is kept because of His finished work of both creation (Exodus 20 v11) and redemption (Deut 5 v15).
c. Rest from the work of eternal redemption (the main focus of Hebrews 3 & 4).
1) This was another rest from another work of God that came after the rest given in Joshua’s day (4 v8).
2) It is the rest that Christ (the Son of God) entered into as it says in Heb 4 v10.
- Heb 4 v10 refers to Him (not to believers) as the one who enters rest because:
a) It is a rest that is like God’s rest from His works of creation. Our cessation from our works when we believe is not like that at all. We renounce our works.
b) The pronouns are singular—referring to Christ an individual, not to believers.
c) It is a rest already fully entered. Ours is a rest we are called to enter (4 v11).

B. Notice how strong the call to enter God’s rest is!
1. We are warned using the words of Psalm 95 (Heb 3 v7-11).
2. We are warned as believers against an evil heart of unbelief that departs from God (3 v12). Such a heart kept those who came out of Egypt from God’s rest. (3 v19).
3. Hebrews 4 explains that if you do not believe, you will not enter God’s rest.
- The promise is for us—fear lest you miss it (4 v1-2).
- Be diligent to enter the rest (4 v11) as God’s word cuts deep inside of you (4 v12-13).
Now let’s look at the work that God the Son did—that work that is now complete.
- This is the work from which He now rests and it is this rest that we are urged to enter.